Thanks, Friendly KIA Guys

There's nothing quite so great as a flat tire on a blizzardy day. (Yeah, blizzardy.) Fortunately, Kirk had warned me that the jack in my car was damaged, so when I realized my tire was flat I quickly racked my brain for options. 1) Pull over to the side of the street and be helpless until someone brought me a working jack. 2) Call Kirk and make him come rescue me. 3) Try to make it to the KIA dealership I knew was just off the freeway exit and hope for some help and a dry spot to park the car. I went with option 3, and I was not disappointed. I parked my car under a sales tent and went into the service department with my damaged jack to ask for help. The nice service manager sent a guy out with a lift who changed my tire for me. I know I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself (and I've even done it in the snow before), but not without a working jack. So, thanks to the friendly guys at KIA for turning my crisis into little more than a hiccup in my day.

Let the Games Begin

Kirk & I have been anxiously waiting for Adam to be old enough to play organized sports. He still isn't technically old enough, but since Adam has been begging me for 3 months to be able to play soccer, I finally took him in to the West Valley Fitness Center so THEY could tell him no. Instead, they decided to look the other way and let him sign up for soccer, even though he is 3 months shy of old enough. Adam turned to me and asked, "Did they say NO, Mom?" When I told him they said yes, he shouted, "Yeah! I need my team shirt!" Now that he knows he gets to play soccer, he has been on this "team shirt" kick all week. On the 26th we get to go meet the coaches, get his uniform, and get a schedule.

Unfortunately, his first game is May 3rd. You may recall Kirk's post about the fact that his graduation and my sister's wedding fall on the same day, and now we can add Adam's first soccer game to that list. We are crossing our fingers and hoping for an afternoon game. If it doesn't work out that way, we'll have to get someone to take Adam to his first game and we'll just have to miss it.

This Bites :)

There are some things you really look forward to having your kids learn, like how to crawl, eat with a spoon, or count to 10. But instead of learning how to walk, Alex has decided to learn how to bite. I was holding my sweet son earlier today when he randomly decided to sink his teeth into my shoulder. He bit down really slowly like... hmm... I wonder what will happen if I do this. Well, he found out exactly what would happen when Mommy took his little arm and bit him back. He looked at me with this totally confused expression, formed his mouth into a little pout, and started to cry. I loved him better, and I hope I won't ever have to bite him again.

As for Adam, he has been picking up fun little phrases at school. Nothing bad, but still sometimes its things I'd rather him not be saying at 3 years old. His favorite this week is, "Holy shoot!" I wish he'd say something else like, "Oh my goodness," or at least "Holy crap." I just worry that "Holy shoot" is a little too close to the alternative and that all it will take is overhearing that choice phrase once and he might try it on for size. He's also picked up, "Missed me, missed me, now you have to kiss me," but I think that one is cute.

This Is Not What I Should Be Doing

I have a filthy house that needs cleaning. I haven't done the laundry in two weeks. (Kirk actually ran everything through the wash last week but nothing ever got folded...) Adam is sitting on the couch vegging in front of the TV. I have phone calls to make to arrange items for the show we're putting on for enrichment night next week. I need to change Alex's appointment for his 1 year check up. (Yes, I am already a month behind on that.) I need to email my Grandma, buy glow in the dark tape for school, make a deposit at the bank, return a shirt to WalMart, and the list goes on. Heck, I could even be blogging about something more productive (like Alex's birthday party pictures that I keep meaning to post). But instead of doing that, I am here wasting my precious time on this pointless blog. I think my life has reached that stage of crazy where I don't even know where to start putting the pieces back together. It's like a never-ending puzzle where each piece I carefully snap into place leaves five new pieces in its wake.

I keep telling myself "after." After Kirk gets back from Missouri, I'll feel in control again. Nope. My current "after" is "After this Ten Virgins production is done, I'll have more time." Another favorite is "After my master bathroom remodeling project is done, I'll be able to keep the house cleaner." But I know these afters will turn into "After spring programs, I'll have more energy," and "After Adam is back in school, I'll have more time to do the laundry."

In a perfect world, writing a "to do" list would somehow the same as actually completing the items on it. That would be nice.

Tax Audit Through the Eyes of the Revenue Agent

So I just finished my first audit. Well the interview process of the audit. I understand that the person I was auditing was scared to death because lets face it we don't jump for joy when the IRS notifies you are being audit. I know this because my 2005 and 2006 taxes are being audited and since I am an employee I will be selected for audit from time to time. Much different than a less than 2% chance of being audited as a normal tax payer. So anyway I was completely nervious and at a complete lose as to what I was doing. I just faked my way through it. I have a rough idea of what is going to happen from here on out on the return but honestly I am still pretty lost. I guess that is why I have a trainer. I am sure that as I do more it will be easier and it will not make me so nervious. As far as advise to those out there that may or will be audited I have this to say. If you have made an honest attempt to file your taxes properly, have your paperwork showing how you came up with the amounts you used, and have a good arguement on why you chose to file that way you will be fine. The auditors for the most part are not hard butts looking to stick it to you.

Civil War

My mom took our whole family to the musical Civil War at Hale Theater this afternoon, and it was amazing. Unfortunately it was closing night tonight, so none of you will get to take my advice to go see this show. The music was written by the same people who wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel, which is one of my all-time favorite musicals at least as far as the actual music goes, and the composers did not disappoint. The whole show was very emotional as it dealt with the stories of a few soldiers on each side of the war as well as some of the slaves.

My favorite scenes/songs included a dying soldiers last words in a letter to his father and a wife's story of when she lost her husband (a Union soldier) in the war. My overall favorite aspect of the show, though, was any time that the Union and Confederate soldiers sang together in an ensemble. These men were amazing. I do wish I could have gone a week earlier so I could have seen Merrill Osmond in the starring role, but the guy we did see was amazing.

I have decided that when the curtain call makes you want to bawl, the show was definately worth seeing. I felt like I was clapping not only to say, "Wow, you were all amazingly talented," but also to say, "Thank you for impacting my life. I will always remember the emotions I felt today."

Text-O-Matic

Although I've had a cell phone now for over 7 years, I've never really had a nice phone (you know, one that doesn't just come free when we renew our contracts). This time around, my wonderful husband told me to pick out any phone I wanted in the Verizon store. I looked at the Envy and a few other fun phones, but the one that really caught my eye -- and which we ended up purchasing -- was the SMT5800 Smartphone. I told Kirk I really liked it, but that it was way more phone than I actually needed. Equipped with Windows Mobile 6.0, it can do all sorts of nice things like sync its calendar and contacts with Outlook. It also has a 2.0 megapixel camera and works as an mp3 player. It has a slide out qwerty keyboard (which is why my dad calls it the Text-O-Matic), and we upgraded our plan to unlimited text and pix. I love my new toy, and I feel so spoiled!

Separation Anxiety

Well, Kirk is back from his trip, and everything is back to normal in our household except for one thing. Sometime between when Kirk left and when he got back, someone took my sweet, independent 3 year old and replaced him with a clingy, anxious version. I feel so bad for Adam, because I understand that in his mind, Daddy left and didn't come back for 3 1/2 weeks. He doesn't understand why, and -- although we tell him over and over again that we'll be back soon -- he doesn't understand that it isn't about to happen again.

Monday, we went to see Brett and Lisa in Meet Me in St. Louis. We had arranged to leave the kids home with Skye. When it was time for us leave, Adam started telling me how much he loved me, and how much he needed me, and he would alternate between begging to come with us and begging for us to stay. We finally had to just walk out the door and leave him crying there. Skye said that Adam stood by the door to the garage the whole time we were gone until Skye made him go to bed at 8:00 p.m. I felt so bad!

I hope we are able to regain his trust soon, so he can enjoy the next several months securely knowing that his parent will, in fact, return each time they leave.